All Blacks: Battle of the perfect tens

Jonny Wilkinson tackles Dan Carter in 2005. Photo / Chris Skelton

The All Blacks see the threat level posed by England as having risen significantly following Jonny Wilkinson's outstanding return to test football.

This time last year, England were in disarray. Now they have a general; a director; a player who could hurt the All Blacks.

Sunday's test at Twickenham has taken on a whole new dimension. It will be the first time Wilkinson and Daniel Carter have clashed since the second British Lions test in July, 2005. That night indisputably belonged to Carter.

It was his coronation as the king of first fives. He scored 33 points and famously stepped past Wilkinson as if he wasn't there early in the second half. It was an act that said Carter was the man on the rise and it was an act that also saw Wilkinson damage his shoulder and leave the field to begin yet another series of endless injuries.

While Carter held his position as the world's best first five in the intervening years, Wilkinson's career went on hold. His appearance on the Lions tour was about the only meaningful rugby he played between 2003 and 2005.

He knocked over the winning dropped goal at the 2003 World Cup and disappeared for two years.

He played for the Lions - and disappeared for two years with yet more injury.

He returned just in time to kick England to the final of the World Cup and then disappeared again.

Like clockwork, almost two years since his last England appearance, he has emerged again and is expected to make a serious play for Carter's crown at Twickenham.

"He looked good," was All Black assistant coach Wayne Smith's assessment of Wilkinson's test return against Australia. "I had heard he had been playing well for Toulon. He looked composed, he was very good defensively as always. So Jonny is back. I am not surprised, given the character. He's got huge character."

No one can doubt the mental strength of Wilkinson; of just what it has taken to haul himself off the canvas as many times as he has in the last six years.

But having been ravaged the way he has; having missed so much football, is he really capable of usurping Carter as the best No 10 in the world?

The English press certainly thought so after the Wallaby test. Former English midfielder Mike Catt wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph: "Jonny was phenomenal. Has he really been away from international rugby for 18 months?

The man is a freak of nature and without his contribution in midfield, England would have been hammered.

"He attacked the ball, took it up to the line and slipped deft little passes into the space.

"He was always a threat, despite the fact that Australia concentrated a lot of their defensive forces on him."

Objective observers would have to keep their faith in Carter leaving Twickenham this Saturday as the game's premium playmaker.

While Wilkinson has the English frothing, he doesn't quite pose the same threat as Carter.

The Englishman doesn't have the same searing acceleration; he doesn't have the same desire to run and find holes. Nor does he have the same languid passing motion.

The two men are evenly matched elsewhere, which is why Smith says the All Blacks will have to be very much on top of their game and why Carter will relish the opportunity to test himself against Wilkinson once more.

"They [England] would struggle without him. I think it will be good for the guys, good for Daniel. I think he will cherish another opportunity against Jonny. All our players will.

' I am sure that personal pride and personal standards will kick in. They are not like tennis players where you get that one-on-one chance - but there is a battle within a battle. I think it will be great for the headlines. It will be great for this tour."

There are few things world rugby craves more than duelling heroes. Wilkinson versus Carter is one of those headline acts that puts rugby into households it normally doesn't venture. It gives the marketing man an angle hype; a story to sell.

All of which makes it impossible not to wonder what Carter's judicial outcome would have been had New Zealand been playing England and not Italy this morning.

Would the IRB have intervened to ensure Carter was not suspended for one week following his high tackle on Welshman Martin Roberts? The showpiece clash would have been off the menu, for a tackle that would get nowhere near featuring on a collection of video nasties.

The All Blacks spent much of their week in Milan hinting that they harboured those very thoughts.

They danced around the issue but there were signals that they felt the outcome would have been entirely different if there was a danger of the Dan and Jonny show not going ahead.

The All Blacks want the showdown as much as the IRB. Not so much for the publicity, but for the opportunity to take on a more organised, more threatening England team.

Last year's test at Twickenham didn't touch the sides. England had no plan, they had no shape and they had held no fear for the All Blacks.

Beating them when they were like that only produced limited satisfaction. Beating them with Wilkinson at the cutter will be a much bigger deal.